Teacher Skills Development Gets Boost

Primary school teachers in Baulkham Hills will get assistance to further develop their classroom skills to benefit their students with funding provided through the NSW Government’s Quality Teaching, Successful Students initiative.

All public schools with primary students in Baulkham Hills will share a total in excess of one million dollars to improve teachers’ skills with activities such as mentoring and coaching; achieving higher levels of accreditation; and collaborative lesson planning and unit development to help teachers learn new skills from each other.

Baulkham Hills State Liberal MP David Elliott said the funding will help local teachers be better equipped to be effective in their classrooms.

“Helping teachers learn and improve their craft is a vital part of providing the best education possible for our children,” Mr Elliott said.

“Each school will determine how this funding is best spent to address an area of most need, for example, more effective literacy and numeracy skills or better classroom management.”

“I am pleased the NSW Government is delivering this important funding for our local community.”

The $244 million Quality Teaching, Successful Students initiative is part of the NSW Government’s Local Schools, Local Decisions reform which has empowered schools to make local decisions about how best to meet the needs of their students.

Education Minister Rob Stokes said $88 million will be dispersed under the initiative in 2017, up from $38 million last year and $10 million in 2015.

“This will allow schools to implement evidence-based approaches to improve teaching and learning.”

Funding amounts are based the number of students at each school with additional loadings for students with special needs. Principals will work with their executive to decide the best way to use the funding.